MIRPUR, Mar 30: India continued their dream run in the ICC World T20 as they pounded a listless Australia by a whopping 73-run margin to emerge group 2 champions with an all-win record, here today.
Put into bat, India scored 159 for seven with Yuvraj Singh showing glimpses of his destructive self with an innings of 60. On a slow track, Yuvraj initially struggled before blasting four sixes and five boundaries in a 43-ball knock.
Indian bowlers then faced little problems in skittling out the Aussies for a meagre 86 in 16.2 overs as Ravichandran Ashwin registered dminating figures of 3.2-0-11-4.
This was India’s most facile win in a T20 match.
The intensity was right there for the entire duration even in an inconsequential match as India would certainly be favourites going into the semi-final encounter for the first time in seven years.
None of the Australian batsmen could show stomach for fight as Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men excelled in all departments yet again. The Aussies were clueless against the spinners, circumspect against the pacers and the Indian fielders were excellent throughout the duration.
Ashwin got the first breakthrough when Finch tried to slog him and Kohli took a simple catch at mid-on. Cameron White (0) looked distinctly short of match practice as he miscued while trying to drive Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the up and Ravindra Jadeja judged it well running backwards from his mid-on position.
Young Mohit Sharma, getting the first match in place of Mohammed Shami, then bowled an off-cutter which breached through Shane Watson (1)’s defence. Watson’s sequence of scores in this World T20 has been 4, 2, 1.
David Warner (19) and Glenn Maxwell (23) can win matches on their day but they were simply interested in trying to slog the spinners across the line. Watson’s slog sweep off Ashwin was taken brilliantly by Rohit Sharma running forward from his deep mid-wicket boundary position.
It was 44 for four and the match was sealed when Maxwell tried an audacious reverse sweep off the Tamil Nadu tweaker to get bowled. Operating from the leg-stump line, it was a straighter one and only the batsman was to blame for his downfall. With half of the team back in the dug-out before the completion of 10 overs, the match was all but sealed.
Skipper George Bailey (8) hit a six and the second cross-batted heave was his dismissal. Brad Haddin (6) on current form wouldn’t have lasted longer against Amit Mishra as Australia were down on their knees at 75 for seven. (PTI)
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